1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a recording medium feeding device and a recording apparatus which includes the recording medium feeding device.
In the present application, the recording apparatus includes types such as an ink jet printer, a line printer, a copier, and a facsimile machine.
2. Related Art
In JP-A-2011-148622 and JP-A-2007-91445, in a recording apparatus such as an ink jet printer, a recording medium feeding device is provided which separates one sheet of recording medium from a paper feed tray which laminates and supports a plurality of recording media and feeds the separate recording medium to a recording portion or the like which performs recording processing. In the recording medium feeding device, a separation inclined portion is provided which is inclined at a predetermined angle with respect to a placement surface of the recording media of the paper feed tray. The recording media which are laminated on the paper feed tray abut a pickup roller and are discharged toward the separation inclined portion. At this time, the tips of the recording media, which are overlapped in a plurality of sheets and are discharged, contact the inclined surface of the separation inclined portion and receive effects of load (which includes a reaction force and a friction force) in a direction opposite to the discharging direction. Thereby, the overlapped recording media are separated by the separation inclined portion, and only the recording medium which is positioned uppermost is discharged to the downstream side of a feed path.
However, recently, there are a variety of types (material, thickness, size, or the like) of recording media which can perform recording processing. In the various types of recording media, the loads (reaction force, friction force) which are required for the separation of the recording medium in the inclined surface of the separation inclined portion are different according to the material or the thickness of the recording medium. Thereby, in JP-A-2011-148622, the recording medium feeding device is disclosed in which the reaction force which is one of the separation conditions of the recording medium is adjusted along with stiffness of the recording medium.
In the recording medium feeding device, a space which makes a portion of the recording medium escape along a discharging direction is formed on a portion of the inclined surface which is positioned in a region opposite to the pickup roller in the discharging direction of the recording medium. In the recording medium feeding device, when the pickup roller contacts the recording medium, a portion of the recording medium escapes to the space and is formed, and thus, the reaction force in which the recording medium receives from the separation inclined portion can be decreased. Since the deformation amount of the recording medium into the space is changed according to the stiffness of the recording medium in the recording medium feeding device, the reaction force in which the recording medium is received from the separation inclined surface can be adjusted along with the stiffness of the recording medium.
However, as disclosed in JP-A-2007-91445, in one detachable paper cassette (tray), a cassette having a two-stage type structure which includes a paper storage portion in an upper stage and a lower stage also exists. In the two-stage type paper cassette, in most cases, the upper stage paper storage portion is formed so as to be smaller than the lower stage paper storage portion. In addition, in most cases, exclusive paper such as postcard paper or photographic paper is stored in the upper stage paper storage portion, and regular paper is stored in the lower stage paper storage portion. Since the separation inclined portion is used in both the upper stage paper storage portion and the lower stage paper storage portion, if the separation conditions are set according to the paper which is stored in the upper stage paper storage portion, the separation conditions are not matched with respect to the kind of the paper which is stored in the lower stage paper storage portion, that is, it is not necessarily possible to set appropriate conditions for both.